


find it on my way back

by Ladymercury_10



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Young Avengers
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-11
Updated: 2014-09-11
Packaged: 2018-02-17 00:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2290166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladymercury_10/pseuds/Ladymercury_10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"If you don’t think we’re kidnapping you for a possibly-interdimensional Doritos run the minute you get back to New York, then clearly too much sun has fried your brain."</p>
            </blockquote>





	find it on my way back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NightsMistress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightsMistress/gifts).



> Title from Metric. Set after the 2013 YA run and while Kate's in California.

So, as it turns out, wifi on the beach? Is not a thing. Kate can’t even make her power cord reach her favorite deck chair, so anything more complicated than typing up a flyer means a trip to the library. The library does have wifi, but things really haven’t been the same since that incident with the music and the piracy that was totally for a good cause, not that anyone believed her. Now the security guards watch her like it’s their job, which technically it is, but that’s not the point. No, the point is this: Kate has missed seven consecutive Skype dates with Billy and if she misses another, that’ll be two whole months since she’s seen his dopey face. She can’t be that friend, the friend who ditches people. Or she can, but only when they deserve it (cough, Barton, cough), and Billy definitely does not. Billy saved the universe with the power of love and didn’t bat an eye when she kissed his brother on New Year’s, and if that’s not good friend karma, she doesn’t know what is. Which is why she took four cases last week, even the one about suspected murder-by-ornamental-cactus. She’s still finding prickly pear spines in her day bag, but she made enough money to buy the futzing cat food  _and_  pay off the overage on her stupid internet phone. She has exactly enough data for a half-hour call with Billy and she intends to use every minute of it.

Kate drags her yoga mat to the roof of the trailer and plunks down, waving her phone in hopes of finding a hotspot. She’s checked and double-checked the time difference between L.A. and New York, but she’s so surprised when the call actually comes through that she nearly drops her phone. But then the video comes on and it’s Billy, and it’s been so long since she’s seen anyone from home she doesn’t know what to say. Billy pushes a piece of hair behind his ear, smiling awkwardly, and then they both say, “Hi,” at the same time. That breaks the tension, and they burst out laughing together.

“So,” Billy says after a moment, voice a little muffled by the static. “It’s pretty loud in California.”

“Right? It’s the wind,” Kate says. “I’m on the roof. It’s, like, impossible to get a signal here, you don’t even know.”

Billy rolls his eyes. “Your life is so hard. You get to live on the beach and pet cats for a living.”

“This cat is more expensive to feed than Tommy, and Tommy gets hungry like every ten minutes.”

“Oh, believe me, I know. Who do you think funds his four a.m. Doritos runs?”

“Oh my god, those were the worst.” Kate huffs a big sigh. “You know, I miss you guys so much I think I even miss the Doritos runs. I miss all the really dumb stuff. I miss those goofy wings you used to wear on your head and I miss America kicking in the walls at all the good diners and I miss Tommy stealing my fries and—”

Billy bites his lip, but she can still tell that he’s smiling, even on her tiny, grainy screen. “Okay, slow down, Bishop. First of all, those wings were amazing and I will hear no slander against them. Especially from people who at one time thought purple patent leather crop tops were in vogue.”

“Excuse you,” Kate starts, but Billy holds up a finger.

“Second, if you don’t think we’re kidnapping you for a possibly-interdimensional Doritos run the minute you get back to New York, then clearly too much sun has fried your brain. Which is, y’know, just one more argument for coming to see us.”

“Are you seriously trying to use a shorter beach season as a selling point for New York?” Kate says, because if she doesn’t say something snarky she might maybe start crying.

“Kate,” Billy says, matching her tone, “I will use  _everything_  as a selling point for New York, up to and including the relative intelligence of the rats and other local vermin. Because you never know, sometimes you say something and it’s magic. And because maybe eventually I’ll annoy you so much with all the reasons that you’ll have to come home just to shut me up.”

“And to think,” Kate says, “All this time I thought Tommy had cornered the market on being obnoxious as a sign of friendship.”

Billy snorts. “Oh, he definitely wins on that one. But it’s probably genetic. It’s like our secondary mutation. Emma Frost can turn into a diamond, Tommy and I can bother people so much they cross state lines just to make us stop talking.”

“That’s a pretty shit superpower,” Kate says.

“Well, if you’re going to be like that, you can make any superpower sound shitty,” Billy says. “Ooh, look at me, I’m Captain America, I’m not quite as strong as the Hulk and also I’m really old.”

Kate cackles at that, a really stupid embarrassing cackle that she’s not even sorry about, because she can’t remember the last thing that made her really, really laugh. Billy raises his eyebrows, but he’s not making fun of her. It’s a surprised face, the one he makes when he comes up with his best spells, or when Teddy grabs his hand. It’s like he never expects things to work out half as well as they do.

The video is starting to blur, and she knows her signal is going to cut out before the half hour is up. There’s a part of her that thinks the last thing they say to each other shouldn’t be making fun of Captain America, and a part of her that thinks that’s exactly what it should be. She’d rather end on a joke than have to say goodbye.

“Billy,” she finally says, because it’s all she can think of to say. “You think Captain America is amazing.”

“Well, more so before he told us the world wasn’t ending when it  _actually was_ , but yes. And yet, I’m willing to make jokes about him, all for your entertainment.”

Kate nods, mock-solemn, but she means it when she says, “You’re a good friend, Billy.”

“I wouldn’t have to be so good if you weren’t so far away,” he says, ducking his head a little.

“I know, I suck.”

“No, you don’t,” Billy says. “California, though. You know—”

The call cuts out, the screen going blank. Kate tries calling back a few times, but she can’t catch the signal anymore. Futzing internet phones. She picks idly at her yoga mat, flicking away the cat hair and a stray cactus thorn. Then she rolls up the mat and hops down into the sand. Living on the beach and petting cats doesn’t pay the phone bills, and she figures there are at least a hundred reasons to go back to New York. If she wants to hear them, she’d better get busy. There’s a case file with her name on it sitting on the kitchen table—if she can catch the organic cinnamon burglar plaguing Topanga Canyon, she’ll be well on her way. She can’t wait.


End file.
